Beirut — Lebanon marked a nationwide day of mourning on Aug. 4, as the country commemorated the two-year memorial of the Beirut port explosion that killed at least 215 people, injured over 6,000 and left large parts of the city destroyed.

Two years since the blast, the investigation is still suspended and the truth has slipped further away. In the midst of a crippling economic crisis the World Bank cited as one of the worst global crises in the past 150 years, talks of accountability have also been absent from recent political discourse — except for a few of the independent parliament members who were elected to parliament in the recent May elections and campaigned partially on pushing for an impartial judiciary system. 

Many Lebanese are skeptical of the prospects of finding the truth about the port blast. To this day, no officials have been held responsible or convicted. And to add fire to the burn, on the second anniversary of the blast the port silos collapsed, resurrecting the trauma of the explosions for many.

Art going back to the Arab poets of the titanic pre-Islamic era who believed in the eternity of their verses has always been a way to immortalize historic moments and channel grief and pain. It was in fact a range of artists and writers who took it upon themselves to create and re-create the memories of atrocities and injustices that would never be remedied during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war. A new generation of artists has emerged today and responded quickly in the aftermath of one of the world’s largest non-nuclear bombs. Despite their differences and the blast’s devastating impact — destroying major art galleries and creating a new immigration exodus — Lebanese and Lebanon-based artists across genres and generations have converged on the same verdict: The political class is responsible and an independent judiciary is required.